Revealed: AA Milne’s secret resting place

FOR 55 years mystery has surrounded the final resting place of Winnie The Pooh creator AA Milne.

This is where the ashes of author AA Milne, creator of Winnie The Pooh, were scattered []

Now lifelong fan Shirley Harrison has discovered that his ashes were scattered with little or no ceremony in a memorial garden in Brighton.

“His final resting spot was one of the great literary mysteries and I am glad to have solved it,” said Shirley, 75.

“It took me a while but it was all worthwhile. People can now go and pay tribute to one of our country’s greatest authors and poets.”

Shirley, who wrote the biography Life And Times Of The Real Winnie The Pooh, has spent more than a year trying to find out what happened to Milne’s body after his death aged 74 on January 31, 1956.

Little is known about his final years at Cotchford Farm, Hartfield, East Sussex, except that he had been an invalid since suffering a stroke in 1952.

Shirley, who lives in nearby Newhaven, spent months being passed from one funeral director to another before Downs Crematorium, in Brighton gave her access to its records where she finally found an entry for Alan Alexander Milne.

AA Milne with his son Christopher Robin

It proved that Milne’s ashes had been scattered in the Upper Memorial Gardens and nearby Downs Crematorium.

Remarkably, there is no plaque to mark the resting place of an author whose work has been loved by generations of children across the world. Shirley, who read her first Pooh book in 1939, said: “I set out to find where he had been buried but couldn’t find any memorial to him and hardly any information about his death.

“There was no marker anywhere. It turns out none of his family and remaining friends were aware of what happened when he died.

“It is very strange. Thankfully, we now know what happened to him. It is a very interesting story but very sad.”

His final resting spot was one of the great literary mysteries and I am glad to have solved it

Lifelong fan Shirley Harrison

Milne was married for 43 years to Daphne, formerly society girl Daphne de Selincourt.

Their son, Christopher, came to bitterly resent his father for basing the character of Pooh’s friend Christopher Robin, on him. He said he was taunted over it at school.

After Milne’s memorial service in London, Christopher never saw his mother again, though she lived for another 15 years. Christopher died in 1996.

Milne wrote hundreds of poems, more than 30 plays and seven ­novels as well as creating Pooh.

FINAL CHAPTER FOR SON'S SHOP

THE bookshop opened by the real-life Christopher
Robin is being forced to close down because it can no longer compete
against online retailers,writes Roddy Ashworth.

The Harbour Bookshop in Dartmouth, Devon, was
opened by Christopher Robin Milne, seen here with his father, AA Milne,
creator of Winnie The Pooh, in 1951.

Today’s owners Rowland and Caroline Abram, say the business has suffered a steady loss of profits for the past three years.